Star Wars Rebels: Update on Possible Movie Characters

The fact that Star Wars Rebels takes place in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope means its prime timeline real estate to bring in characters from the films. As we recently learned from a Disney Store and Hasbro sneak peek event, Obi-Wan Kenobi could be appearing in Rebels. And that's not all. It's looking likely that scoundrel Lando Calrissian will have a role in the series, and Billy Dee Williams will be providing the voice.

Three different sources support this rumor. First of all, Star Wars Rebels executive producer and co-creator Simon Kinberg recently spoke with Collider about writing dialogue for legacy characters in Rebels. Collider specifically asked what it was like writing dialogue for Lando and Billy Dee Williams, and Kinberg didn't refute the statement. He simply answered the question and said, "Writing dialogue for any of the legacy characters is as big a thrill as anything I’ve ever had in my life."

Lando Calrissian

This question came about because Billy Dee Williams made an appearance awhile back at Rhode Island Comic Con and may have let it slip that he's recording for Star Wars Rebels. The audio of the panel, embedded at Lightsaber Rattling, reveals some backpedaling as Billy Dee states he's about to go do something with Netflix and his manager interjects and says it's actually "Rebels." Billy Dee says, "Uh, Rebels but I cant' talk about it." His manager shuts down further questions on the subject.

Finally, Making Star Wars spotted a post from Star Wars Insider magazine on Facebook that strongly indicates the presence of Lando in Rebels. Along with a video of the Rebels trailer, Star Wars Insider states, "CG form or in the flesh, we're on cloud 9 (well, level 1-50 of Cloud City, which we hear is even better) having Lando back on our screens." That post has since been deleted from their Facebook page.

Screenshot of Star Wars Insider magazine's Facebook post

Given all that, I'd say the forecast for Star Wars Rebels is rainy with a chance of Lando.

Besides the big Lando news, Kinberg also revealed to Collider that the episodes will air in a “Movie-of-the-Week” format where two episodes air back-to-back," and there will be 16 of them in Season 1.

Star Wars Rebels premieres on Disney XD this fall.

Amy Ratcliffe is a writer for IGN TV. You can follow her on on Twitter at @Amy_Geek and IGN at alratcliffe.